Stematsky Avigdor
(1908 -
Born in Odessa, Steimatzky immigrated with his family in 1921 and was enrolled at the Bezalel Academy between 1926 and 1929. At the same time he was introduced to trends in French painting by Frenel Frenkel, and in 1930 went to Paris and worked at the Grande Chaumi?re. Although wounded in the war of Independence he was among the founders of the New Horizons movement in 1948, and a leading abstract painter. A devoted educator at the Avni Institute and Haifa University, he was the recipient of many awards: the DIzengoff Prize (1941, 1946), the Ramat Gan Prize (1957), the Milo Club Prize (1976), the Jerusalem Prize (1967), the Sherman Prize (1972) and the Sandberg Prize (1976). His works have been exhibited in all Israeli museums and many galleries. Retrospective exhibitions of his work were held in 1972 and 1980 by the Israel (national) Museum in Jerusalem.
